Freshmen better versed in math and science will begin entering UT in Fall 2013.
The UT Board of Trustees passed June 23 new admission requirements for all UT campuses, which will require more math and science.
In particular, high school students must complete four years of high school math, where previously three years sufficed.
Instead of requiring "two years of algebra," UT will require specifically Algebra I and Algebra II. Plus students must complete one class of geometry or higher and one additional math class.
And where the old requirement was two units of natural science, UT admission now mandates three courses of natural science.
"In 2007, we looked again at what was going on in the high schools in Tennessee, and the Board of Education determined that high school graduates needed more preparation," said Katie High, interim vice president for academic affairs and student success, at the Academic Affairs and Student Success Committee meeting on June 23.
High described it as a two-year process to revamp what was taught in high school math.
"Students had on their transcript Algebra I and Algebra II, but they weren't at the level of Algebra II in proficiency," High said.
She described the new fourth year of math as possibly a new level or a refresher on Algebra II.
The science requirements are a bit looser for high school students.
"You have to take biology, chemistry and something else, and we hope it's physics," she said.
High said the ACT organization predicts new guidelines like these will aid students when they get to college.
"The ACT organization has determined that if students know Algebra I and Algebra II, if they really have that under their belt when they graduate high school, then they have a 75-percent chance of being successful in their first math class," she said. "So we're really pushing the content of Algebra I and Algebra II."
As part of its top-25 pursuit, High said UT will have a holistic review of admissions. Though the university is not requiring it, what she said UT is looking for are students who have taken Algebra I, Algebra II, geometry and a class like statistics or trigonometry.
For out-of-state student applicants, High said that, if they come from a high school that does not have these courses, then the campuses determine how to make the class up.
She recalled when the Board of Trustees first approved high school required courses for admission in 1985.
"The high schools were afraid we wouldn't have enough teachers to offer geometry to the students, foreign language, history," she said. "There was a great Huon cry."
But as a result, in 1989, all freshmen coming to the UT campuses had to take those courses, she said.
UT President Joe DiPietro recalled his academic past when describing how these new guidelines will help students.
"If you have a weak point because of not having a textbook or perhaps not having the best teacher in physics like I have, then you have trouble when you first get to university, tackling that course, as other students are better prepared," he said.